an 8 month journey

the journey to sign the lease on our barn was not an easy one!

8 months ago we decided that we needed more room.  a lot more room in fact.  we went to view properties around Worthing and picked the one right next door to the workshop I'm in right now .... long story short the landlord decided right before we signed that the ingoing tenant needed to spend about £50,000 and work to his surveyor's schedule which included penalties and extra costs that all added up to it being quite ridiculous.  Because he'd waited until we were quite a long way down the road to spring this on us it cost us quite a bit with solicitors etc when we pulled out (not that we had much choice because we couldn't afford it after that bombshell!!) do you remember me advertising for more staff?? that was when we had *very nearly* signed and I am so lucky that no one took the extra job in the end!

that was early December and after a few days of utter disappointment and feeling poop :-(  I sat at home on my little netbook and said to John 'right, we'll just move to Dorset like we've always wanted to' - and I went onto google, found Dorset commercial estate agents and clicked onto the barn, checked the prices and said 'it's ok I found us a barn' ... I did say it a bit tongue in cheek - turned the screen round to show John and he said 'ok, lets have it'....we went to see it that weekend, met the landlord the weekend after and our offer was accepted and the solicitors were called back into action!  two months since we met the landlord and the deal was complete and the barn was ours! 
I think it's fate :-)
We have lost Becky, and I am gutted about that - but luckily she's found a great new job...she's been there today & again tomorrow for training - and her last day with us is Thursday.  We will need new staff in Dorset but we're hoping that more room will make us more efficient and will start with one part timer....time will tell!

For the past 8 months I've been adding pics of workshops and shop interiors to my pinterest board, some of the early pics are more suited to the first property - if you look at them all and mix it all up a little, that is what the barn will eventually look like :-)
pinterest : click here